Category Archives: Jody Lee
This has not been the best year, and I feel that I’ve been under water for most of 2025. But this morning it occurred to me that I’ve never posted the cover for The Wild Road here, so first things first. Cover art by Jody Lee. The Wild Road is the second book in the series; it follows Hunter’s Redoubt. I have been working on the third book, but ‘working’ means starting it over and over again. But this morning when I woke up, I had that flash of insight that meant I’d been starting from the wrong place. Again. All West novels do this. To be fair to me, much of April was taxes and house repairs and copy edits (Cast in Blood) — the first attempt … Continue reading →
This book had a bit of journey. I’d written 200k words. I’d cut 110k of those words, but still believed I had 90k words. This is not what happened. What happened in the end was I had 0k of the original words I’d written — and 303k of the new words I’d started once I’d typed “the end” (which is figurative as I don’t think I’ve ever typed that unless instructed to do so). It is the longest first book in an arc I’ve ever written. Which was not my intent. But. Michelle. Story length. It is the story of my writing life >.< Jody Lee did the cover art, and Kathleen Oudit, the cover design across all four formats. This is the front cover and the … Continue reading →
As those of you who follow my Patreon know, at the beginning of July, I had a drive-by argument with a chair in the living room, and lost. I managed to break not one, but two, toes. I have been off work at the bookstore, but in theory will return on the 10th of August, the day on which I can take off the boot on my foot. Previous toe breakage did not require a boot. But I could stand on the foot in both prior cases. By the end of the day of the 2‑toe breakage, I was reduced to crawling because I couldn’t actually put any weight on the foot at all. Which meant, when we went to the hospital, I went in bare feet; I couldn’t put even a sandal on. … Continue reading →
I think I missed an August update =/. Life has been a bit busier than usual, with the usual blend of good and ugh. Good: My father celebrated his 88th birthday. We had a private room at a restaurant, but it’s the first time since February 2020 that I’ve eaten inside any restaurant whatsoever. Less good: I developed a retinal tear; it’s been fixed (laser), and yesterday’s followup appointment was all positive – but it took twelve hours for the dilating eyedrops to wear off. Usual writer variant less good: the Magic School book which I was so looking forward to writing has been eating my lunch, but apparently leaving me with All The Calories >.<. I have several chapters written but think I have to nuke the latest one. Which is better … Continue reading →
I appear to have missed the month of June =/. This month, I turned in Cast in Oblivion. I have not turned in Firstborn yet, but will hopefully finish it before the end of this month; it was more complicated to split the book than I’d originally intended, and required a couple of running starts, but I am now on the (new) last chapter. I am very glad that I don’t have to worry about the length of the book, since it was the shorter half of the split. Jody Lee, the cover artist, finished the emergency Unplanned Novel cover before I finished the revision >.>. I will share when I can. I am writing the first Severn novel next, Elantra-wise. The next Cast novel should be about Bellusdeo and … Continue reading →
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